The present invention relates to the field of multi-media communication devices. More particularly it relates to the field of shared drawing devices that use computer and video technology.
In recent years, psychologists and others have begun to recognize that telecommunication inhibits true exchange of information in important ways. Jack Gerissen and John Daamen mention this fact in a paper entitled "Inclusion of a `Sharing` Feature in Telecommunication Services " at the 13th International Symposium on Human Factors in Telecommunications, held in September, 1990. In this paper, the authors contrast face-to-face communications with telecommunications. They point out that many telecommunication devices lack the shared workspace which is an important feature of face-to-face communications.
Recently a study of interactions among team members during a design process was conducted. In his doctoral dissertation, "Listing, Drawing, and Gesturing in Design: a Study of the Use of Shared Workspaces by Design Teams", Xerox Corporation Report No. SSL-89-3, April, 1989, John Tang concluded that "gestures and their relationship to the workspace convey important information". Moreover, he recognized that "the nature of the access to the workspace (orientation, simultaneous access, and proximity) structures how the workspace is used".
With the advent of the computer, and improvements in telecommunication capabilities, for example communication satellites and video cameras, the opportunities for long distance collaboration in development, design and visual communication are expanding. Engineers have already developed many devices which enable improved collaboration among participants in a communication process. Two important ones will be described below.
Xerox' VideoDraw provides a video shared drawing space and can be considered a video homologue of a chalkboard or whiteboard. Each participant uses whiteboard markers to mark on a TV screen. Video cameras aimed at each TV screen transmit the marks and the accompanying hand gestures that each person makes to all the other screens on the network. A large scale version of VideoDraw, called VideoWhiteboard, has also been developed. See U.S. application Ser. No. 07/559486, filed Jul. 30, 1990, entitled "Apparatus Allowing Remote Interactive Use of a Plurality of Writing Surfaces".
Xerox' Commune provides a shared drawing space that can be considered a computational homologue of a pad of paper. In this device, each person manipulates a stylus to "draw" on a transparent digitizing tablet that is mounted over a computer display monitor. Each tablet and computer display is connected to a computer central processing unit (CPU). The CPUs are then connected together into a network. Each person sees a computer combined image of the "drawings" made by each person at each digitizing tablet on the network. Each person has a color-coded cursor that always tracks the motion of each stylus. The stylus/computer interface can be designed so that the stylus can "erase" or "draw" as desired by the person.
While each of the above devices was a considerable improvements each lacks important features for enhancing communications. VideoDraw is only a video device and has no computing capability. Thus storage of information and printing of output are difficult. Commune has computing capability but complex video function. This means that hand gestures are reduced to cursor motions. Combining the features of VideoDraw and Commune would provide a device representing a great step forward in the field of telecommunications. The enhanced capabilities of this device would satisfy a long felt need in the field of shared drawing systems.